What is a MT4 platform? - MT4 Introduction Tutorial - Introduction to MT4 Interface
The following screenshot below shows the main MT4 interface showing what is a MT4 platform. As a beginner trader trying to learn how to execute forex orders in the online forex trading market, the main tool for trading the forex market is the MT4 platform software. This How to Use MT4 Review Tutorial for Forex Beginners will explain how you can use this MT4 software to connect to your MT4 forex broker and execute forex transactions and monitor your forex account balance from this MT4 platform that you will download from online MT4 brokers.
The MetaTrader 4 Forex Trading Software is provided for free through the various Forex broker websites. This forex platform looks like example below:
What is MT4 platform? - MT4 Introduction Lesson - MetaTrader 4 Introduction Guide
Main Areas of this MT4 software as displayed above are:
- Navigation Menus
- Toolbars
- Chart Window
- Navigator
- Market Watch
- Terminal
- Connection Bars
For this MetaTrader 4 Introduction Tutorial we shall look at a brief introduction for each of these:
1. Navigation Menus
The navigation menus are:
- File
- View
- Insert
- Charts
- Tools
- Window
- Help
These are main navigation menus that can be used to navigate the MT4 platform. As a beginner trader you can start by just clicking any of these navigation menus to familiarize yourself with the various buttons that are arranged as sub menus within these navigation menus on the MetaTrader 4 platform.
These MT4 navigation menus will be discussed in details in the next MetaTrader 4 Introduction Guides about navigation menus.
2. Toolbars
The MetaTrader 4 tool bars are used to manipulate forex charts, either by placing forex chart indicators, line studies, change forex chart time frames and load a forex MT4 template from a list of saved chart templates.
These MT4 tool bars will be discussed on other MT4 Introduction Tutorials which will outline each button on this MT4 tool bar and explain how to add MT4 chart tool bars and how to customize MT4 chart tool bars.
3. Chart Window Panel
This is the main area where forex charts are displayed and a trader can analyze the forex trend direction of a forex chart whether up or down, place forex chart indicators for technical analysis and even place forex orders from these forex price charts.
4. Navigator
Navigator panel will contain data about forex trading accounts, whether practice account or real account, this window will also have a list of all the MetaTrader 4 technical indicators as well as Expert Advisors & scripts.
A trader can choose which forex account to login by expanding the Accounts menu, choose an indicator by expanding the forex indicator menu or choose an Expert Advisor by expanding the forex Expert Advisor menu.
5. Market Watch
Market watch is used to show streaming forex quotes for currency pairs. This can list as many forex quotes provided by your Forex broker or a few chosen by a trader on the MT4 platform. To save internet bandwidth, right click inside the market watch window and select 'Hide All', so as to hide the forex currencies that you are not trading & save on inter-net bandwidth.
6. Terminal
This is window that is like the bank account trade area for your forex trade transactions, on this MT4 window you can view your forex account balance, profit and losses statement, equity, margin used also retrieve a copy of all your forex trade transactions history.
This will also list all open forex trade transactions & calculate all the profit & loss in realtime as a forex currencies prices move up or down.
7. Connection Bar
MT4 connection bars on MT4 status bar - Red bars are for no connection, green bars show that there is connection to the broker servers & forex trade orders can be placed. These MT4 connection bars should always be green when one logged into their demo forex account or live forex account.
These main areas form the MT4 interface and will be the main areas to be covered in detail in the next MT4 Introduction Forex Tutorials. For now it is best to download MT4 software and familiarize yourself with MT4 software interface.
Why Forex Software is Required for Placing Trade Transactions with Brokers
Forex trading platform is software that is used to access the forex currency market and interpret these currencies using forex charts and technical analysis trading tools. There are various reasons why a trader requires to use a good forex platform. A good forex platform can determine if a as a trader you make a profit or not when trading using the platform.
So why does a Forex Trading trader need a good Platform:
To connect to the Forex Broker Trading Server:
To place a forex trade order a trader needs to use a forex trading software which will connect to the trading servers of their forex broker and allow them to open and close trade orders. Good forex trading softwares will connect with ease to the brokers' servers & allow forex traders to place forex orders at any time from desktop computer.
To analyze forex charts & currencies using forex charts and forex technical analysis tools
To place a buy or sell forex order a trader needs to first analyze the direction of a currency pair. This is why all good forex trading softwares provide forex price charts and forex technical analysis tools such as, forex indicators & various different chart timeframes from which trader can analyze price moves using the forex chart time frames of their choice.
How to Use MetaTrader 4 Guide Introduction Tutorial - Forex MT4 Setup
From above MetaTrader 4 platform interface - MT4 Introduction Tutorial, the summary of all information required by a trader is provided on this interface
- Connection - connection to the broker servers
- Charts - price graphs that display prices movements
- Tool bars - chart tool bars to add tools & technical analysis technical indicators
- Market Watch - for displaying available financial instruments
- Data window - provides forex account data & other indicator data
- Exchange rates - shows current market price of a currency pair
- Menu bar - Shows all menu items in MetaTrader 4 platform
